Ben Flor MBA'10

UNITED AIRLINES EMERGING LEADERS PROGRAM

It's hard to predict where you'll find tomorrow's business leaders. Ben Flor had been working for several years as a mechanical engineer and had never taken a single business class when he decided to come to Kelley in 2008. His passion for figuring out how things work–and how to make them work better–made him a natural for Kelley's entrepreneurship program.

He got to experience entrepreneurism at its most elemental level during a summer internship at Plug and Play, a Silicon Valley business incubator that has nurtured household names including Google, Logitech, and PayPal. Entrepreneurs have to be jacks of all trades. During his time there, Flor created a marketing presentation for potential tenants and investors. He helped a Plug and Play tenant create marketing materials and a venture capital pitch. He wrote a business plan to guide the Plug and Play's expansion into three new facilities. He even organized a grand opening party.

It was more than an internship. It was an education. "I have learned first-hand about startup companies, real estate, venture capital, and angel investors,” he says.

That flexibility and range of experience gave him a lot of options. After graduation, he joined United Airlines' Emerging Leaders Program, where his task is finding solutions on what United considers the three most important elements of its business: how it makes money, how it attracts customers, and how it gets planes off the ground. The answers will likely span a range of functions. It's a perfect assignment for an entrepreneur–and a former engineer.